Nigeria militants attack oil pipelines

By Randy Fabi ABUJA (Reuters) - Militants in Nigeria's Niger Delta said on Monday they had attacked two major oil pipelines belonging to Royal Dutch Shell, forcing the firm to halt some production and helping push world oil prices higher. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), whose campaign of violence has cut Nigeria's oil output by around a fifth since early 2006, said its members conducted the attacks in the early hours of Monday morning. Shell, which operates onshore in Nigeria in a joint venture with state oil firm NNPC, said it had halted some output from the Nembe Creek trunkline but gave no details on the volume. Industry sources said about 130,000 barrels per day of crude oil flows through the pipeline to the Bonny export terminal in Nigeria, the world's eighth largest exporter. Oil from the... [read full story]